$51,000 lottery winner killed sons, 11 and 5, and himself after estranged wife found he spent money on prostitutes
An inquest heard how a lottery winner stabbed his estranged wife, killed his two young sons, and then killed himself after she found out that he had blown his winnings on prostitutes, as well as on other items for himself.
In what was the culmination of years of tension in a fractured relationship, David Stokes, 43, barricaded himself inside his home in Hinckley, Leicestershire, in the early hours of November 2, 2016, with his wife Sally Stokes, and children Adam, 11, and Matthew, 5, and went on the murderous spree.
He first hit her on the head with a rolling pin and tried to smother her before stabbing her in the side, according to the Daily Mail. While she managed to escape the hostage situation with serious injuries, her children were not so lucky.
When police entered the home following a five-hour stand-off, they found Adam and Matthew together in a bed in the home, holding hands. Forensic analysis suggested they had been strangled to death. Stokes was found dead with a knife in his chest.
Speaking about the horrific events at an inquest at Loughborough Coroner's Court, Sally revealed that, while she had been in a relationship with her husband for 16 years and married to him since 2011, he was abusive and "lied about a lot of things."
She said she found he had a second mobile phone on him, and that when she confronted him about it, he smashed up their kitchen, adding that he had been cheating on her and regularly using dating sites to go out on dates with other women.
She explained their marriage further deteriorated in the months leading up to the murders after she found a bundle of lottery tickets behind a sports bag in a cupboard that showed he had won $51,000 despite him repeatedly claiming they had no money. She found he had spent most of it on a new car and shares.
It reached a tipping point on November 1, the day the hostage situation began, after she said she looked through his phone and found he had been making bookings with escorts. She also saw in his search history that he had been looking at date rape drugs, which raised alarm bells about Halloween night, after which she had woken up feeling "spaced out."
The mother said when she called him and told him she would report her findings to the police, she didn't "feel any danger" because he "just kept telling me he loved me, over and over, and he would never do it again."
But a note police later found at the home proved he had been planning to kill all of them. "I'm so sorry for what I've done," it read. "Today it all came crashing down and it all had to end. We'll be together again."
"Sal, I'm so sorry for all the things I've done and hurt you. But this last week you have had me completely and totally in love with you," it continued. "You pushed too much. If you had left it, we could have been happy forever."